Tuesday, 9 September 2008

Although we won’t know the outcome of the main event until November, the rest of this year’s annual poker frenzy has come to a conclusion. The big result for the Irish was, of course, Marty Smyth’s massive win in the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha event. Marty triumphed against a tough international field of 381 players to pick up his first WSOP bracelet and a first prize just short of $860,000. Congratulations to Marty, who has just had a string of results in the last year and a half most players can only dream about. There was double Irish interest in the final table as Dublin man Tom Hanlon also made it through and finished in 7th spot for around $134,000. Tom also cashed in the WSOP main event to complete a pretty good trip.Top of the Irish in this year’s main event was a young man I must admit I don’t know or really know anything about. All I can tell you is that he comes from Dublin and finished in 71st spot for $96,500. His only previous published result was an 11th place finish for €270 in the 2008 National Student Poker Championship in Dublin. He has certainly graduated to a higher class with this result.Other notable results came from Chris Rentes from Kinnegad and John O’Shea from Dublin. Chris finished 4th in the $1,500 Limit/No Limit tournament for just over $69,000. John came 5th in the $2,500 No Limit event for a payday of $99,000. Well done to both.Andy Black notched up the most cashes of the Irish, placing in the money three times for around $50,000.Congratulations to all the other Irish players who cashed in WSOP 2008.

Notable quotes heard at this year’s WSOP

On meeting up with Marty Smyth in the Rio Casino a couple of days after his big win I congratulated him and asked him where the bracelet was. Marty replied “Uhhh, Paddy O’Conner has it ..... I think”

George McKeever, who is over 70 years of age and has been playing poker successfully for over 50 years, after cashing in this year’s main event. “I really learned a lot in this tournament. I need to play with a new strategy”

IPC TOUR

Irish Poker Events and Party Poker.com have announced details of an Irish Poker Tour leading up to the Irish Poker Championship in January 2009. To their credit, Party Poker.com are putting their money where their mouth is and are adding €20,000 to the Tour. Each of the eight legs of the countrywide tour will have €2,000 added with an additional €4,000 being put up for a special league based on performances on the tour as a whole. In the remaining six legs of the tour the top five will win seats to the Championship event. The buy-in for each tour event will be €320 + 30 and each will have a support event, also qualifying for the Tour League, with a buy-in of €200 + 20.Party Poker.com will also be running online satellites for Championship seats.Dates and venues for the IPC Tour are as follows:-

The Championship weekend itself kicks off with a super satellite in the Eglinton Casino, Galway on New Years Day. The three day Championship main event starts in the Radisson Hotel, Galway on Friday 2nd January and will be recorded for a series of television shows. The buy-in for the main event remains at €2,000. A total of 298 runners turned up in the middle of a snow storm for the last Irish Poker Championship so the organisers are hoping for an entry of over 400 for 2009. Lat year’s Champion, Jude Ainsworth from Galway, picked up €145,000 for top spot.

NEWS

Another sponsorship deal has been announced. Nicky Power, from Waterford, has been given a deal by a new entrant into the Irish internet poker scene, Brucepoker.com. Nicky made the final table at the 2007 Irish Open and has many other good results to his credit. Good luck to both Nicky and Brucepoker.com.

The next big event in the calendar takes place in the INEC, Killarney from 2nd to 5th October. Ladbrokes.com, in conjunction with Big Slick Events and The Cue Club, Killarney, are guaranteeing a €250,000 prize pool for the Killarney Poker Festival. The buy-in for the three day main event is €500 + 50 and support events at €300 and €170 will also be held over the weekend. The festival will kick off on Thursday 2nd October with a €50 + 10 super satellite, with one re-buy or top up, guaranteeing 20 seats to the main event. Online satellites are already running on Ladbrokes poker.com. For full details, check out the Ladbrokes poker or Big Slick Events websites

For the smaller bank roll, pokerireland.ie and Boylesports.com are running the second International Open at the Regency Airport Hotel, Dublin from 17th to 19th October. The buy-in is a modest €150 but the numbers taking part are anything but modest. This event set new records last year with 1,072 players turning up to play. For further details, check out their two websites.

Paddy Power Poker.com, in association with the Jackpot Club, are gearing up for the Irish Winter Festival to be held in the Citywest Hotel, Dublin from 25th to 27th October. The three day main event has a buy-in of €1500 + 150 with two support events. The first is a €200 + 20 event with re-buys for 90 minutes and the final event is a €500 + 50 freezeout. 0nline satellites are already running on paddypowerpoker.com and on other sites on the ipoker network, including greenjokerpoker and bluesquarepoker. For full details, check out the paddypower website.

If you have any news, views or events, you can contact me by email to mickymccloskey@hotmail.comYou can also check out my website www.pokerinireland.net for archive articles, Irish poker news and links to Irish poker rooms.